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USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
'' "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." '' - James T. Kirk, 2268 The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a Federation Constitution-class heavy cruiser that was in service with Starfleet in the mid-to-late 23rd century. In the course of her career, the Enterprise became the most celebrated starship of her time. In her forty years of service and discovery, through upgrades and at least two refits, she took part in numerous first contacts, military engagements, and time-travels. She achieved her most lasting fame from the five-year mission (2265-2270) under the command of James T. Kirk. The Enterprise was destroyed over the Genesis Planet in 2285 when Kirk activated the ship's auto-destruct sequence to prevent the Enterprise from falling into the hands of the Klingons. Refits and Further Service The Enterprise's first documented refit occurred sometime between 2254 and 2265. Minor changes were made to the ship's exterior (most notably the impulse engines, warp nacelles, running lights, and hull markings). More substantial changes were made to the interior color scheme and layout of the ship. A second, more extensive refit occurred at some point after her encounter with the "galactic barrier" in 2265. It involved replacing the bridge module, a newer, smaller deflector dish, and refinements to her warp nacelles. The ship's interior was also upgraded. The new bridge module included consoles with triangular and circular resin buttons as well as white-colored rocker flip switches. There was another small refit sometime in early 2266 too. The white-colored rocker flip switches seen on bridge consoles and on various places on the ship were replaced with multi-colored rocker flip switches. In the late 2260s, a new bridge module added a second turbolift , and the design moved toward a completely smooth circular configuration, both standard features on future starships. At the same time the translucent overhead dome was obscured, not to return until the Galaxy-class bridge. At the end of her five-year mission, the Enterprise returned to Earth in 2270. Following her success, the ship had become a recognized symbol of Starfleet and the Federation. Starfleet's array of unique assignment patches were abandoned for the universal adoption of the Enterprise delta symbol, previously used on the assignment patch for the USS Kelvin. (Star Trek) The stalwart vessel herself was by then twenty-five years old and returning from a deployment that included an unprecedented number of warp-speed records, hull-pounding battles, and frame-stressing maneuvers. In spacedock, 2272 System upgrades with new technologies after long deployments were far from unusual in her history, but the Enterprise's overhaul of the early 2270s became a nearly keel-up redesign and reconstruction project. The very heart of the ship was replaced with a radically different vertical warp core assembly, linked to new, and heavier, warp engine nacelles atop swept-back pylons and integrated with the impulse engines. The new drive system allowed for an expanded cargo hold in the secondary hull, linked to the shuttlebay. Weapons system upgrades included nine dual-phaser banks with power channeled directly from the warp engines. A double photon torpedo/probe launcher was installed atop the secondary hull. Multiple egress points now included a port-side spacedock hatch, dual ventral space walk bays, four dorsal service hatches, and a standardized docking ring port aft of the bridge on the primary hull; four more docking ring ports, paired on the port and starboard sides of the launcher and secondary hulls respectively, and service hatch airlocks on the port and starboard sides of the hangar bay's main clam-shell doors. A new bridge module reflected the modern computer systems, operating interfaces, and ergonomics that ran throughout the ship. Following Kirk's promotion to rear admiral and posting as Chief of Starfleet Operations, his hand-picked successor, Captain Willard Decker oversaw the refit, assisted by Chief engineer Commander Montgomery Scott. After two-and-a-half years in spacedock for refit, the Enterprise was pressed into service, weeks ahead of schedule, in response to the V'Ger crisis, once again under Kirk's command. Making contact with V'Ger Decker was temporarily demoted to commander and posted as executive officer because of his familiarity with the new design. Incomplete systems had to be serviced during her shakedown cruise en route to V'Ger, including the first test of the new warp engines. A matter/antimatter intermix malfunction ruptured the warp field and led to the Enterprise's entry into an unstable wormhole. Commander Decker belayed an order from Admiral Kirk to destroy an asteroid in their path, which had been dragged into the ruptured warp field along with them, with phasers. The refitted phasers now channeled power directly from the main engines at a point beyond the dilithium/magnatomic-initiator stage. Because of this, the intermix malfunction, and the antimatter imbalance within the warp nacelles that had resulted, caused automatic cutoff of the phasers, a design change of which Kirk had not been aware. Decker ordered the use of photon torpedoes instead; as a backup, they had been designed to draw power from a separate system in case of a major phaser loss. The timely arrival of Commander Spock brought correction to the intermix problem. (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) Once the V'Ger threat was averted, Captain Decker was listed as "missing in action" and the Enterprise remained under Admiral Kirk's command for an interim period. At some point, Kirk passed command on to Captain Spock. The new designs and components tested and proven aboard the Enterprise influenced a generation of starship design, from the Miranda-class to the Constellation-class, as well as other retro-fitted Constitutions. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)